VENTURA COUNTY NEWSWATCH

SUFFRAGETTE CITY: Sen. Barbara Boxer will be the featured speaker at a large picnic Saturday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza to celebrate passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the vote 75 years ago. But it was an earlier feminist--Susan B. Anthony, of the dollar coin fame--who wowed 'em during an 1896 rally in Ventura County, 15 years before California women were allowed to vote. "It was a sold-out house," says Ventura librarian Alberta Word. "They predicted passage, but it didn't."

WINDOW WAIT: Computer store owners in Ventura County expected a midnight rush among those wanting to be the first to own Windows 95. But Martin Duran, owner of the Computer Idiot training company in Ventura, suggests delaying the purchase of the PC operating system. "Wait until the lines die down and the dust settles, and see what your neighbors and co-workers are saying about it," he says.

ARABIAN KNIGHT: Matt Schuman, 13, of Hollywood Beach must redecorate his room to make space for two new first-place trophies he won last week at the Royal Red National Championship in Canada. These came within weeks of Matt winning first- and second-place honors at the U. S. championship for Arabian horses. Despite his success with his 12-year-old purebred, Miss Adelaide, Matt says he may soon put the horse up for sale--at a profit, of course. "There's not much more you can do with her. . . . National champion is about as high as you can go."

SPECIAL GIFT: A liver transplant for Ojai's Larry Hagman (B5) is the latest celebrity case to bring national attention to such operations. Liver donations more than doubled between 1988 and 1993, but there are still too few to meet the demand, says Elizabeth Flynn of the Regional Organ Procurement Agency. "With high-profile cases, everyone talks about organ donation and transplant," which she hopes will lead to greater donations.